Lonnie rubbed his eyes and dropped into a chair behind his squad leader.
“What’s going on,” Lonnie whispered, leaning forward.
Lee leaned back, “Possible assignment. You saw the briefing packet right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, we might be targeting someone shortly. Just one of the higher-ups wants to give a speech.”
“Okay,” Lonnie said, leaning back as someone walked on stage.
The man wore a casual black suit, a little cute blue tie, and he didn’t seem like one of the investors that often work with Lonnie on money-making projects. A little more bulky, the light brown beard trim to show off his strong jaw. Thick neck that someone would find hard to put into a headlock. This guy gave the feel of being a heavy gym user.
“Some of you know of me or heard of my name, Clayton Hughes.” The fellow cracked a smile when a few people mumbled about him.
Narcissistic!
“The reason I called you here is so that you guys can see the face of the man behind the scenes. To give you the security that if you go down for bad intel, you can name the big guy pulling the strings.” Clayton started pacing while people hushed up. “You see, this project is huge and the amount of financial backers behind it is enough to worry a lot of folks from homeland security to top bureaucrats. None of them want organizations privatizing an unknown entity such as ourselves.”
Who would be accepting of private militarized organizations? Contractors are already giving them a headache with some of them taking deals under the table to operate within their domicile. A superhuman one would be harder to monitor and even harder to prevent.
“That is why I’m here now. I’m the fall guy in case shit goes wrong and the Government places us in the type of wrench grip we can’t get out. However, because I don’t want to spend my life in a comfortable cell, eating good ass food, fucking some beautiful as women when the Warden feels happy. I need you guys to be on your P’s and Q’s.”
Clayton gestured at the group standing awkwardly to the side of the stage.
“These fuckers will be going over every mission to ensure you done your job to the most optimal level that the situation allows. If you fuck up, they will know, and then you will be left facing me.” He patted his chest and smiled. “Now, I’ll talk a little about our operations and how to get rid of the tails following you. Well some of you have already taken care of that like Lonnie Winters.”
Oh, shit? Why is he calling my name? I didn’t leave any evidence behind. Nor have I done anything to get the cops to investigate me.
“No matter how careful you are or you think you are. Someone will find a pattern in your movements and come up with a counter plan.” Clayton pointed at the big screen. “As you can see from this slideshow, it is a little fast. Each and every picture tracks Mr. Winters from his home, to the local college he goes to, to his job, and then back. It also has the history of his girlfriend, his childhood friend he probably wants to ditch, and his girlfriend’s friend who often stays over at his house.”
I knew that already but is it my fault they came up with a way to track something I didn’t even know I exerted?
“In fact, they know about his newest Mistress which he picked up right before coming here.” Clayton looked at Lonnie. “Shit! This guy doesn’t even leave married pregnant women alone. Respect but fuck, bro. She’s an FBI agent on Paternity leave and her husband is in the new division run by Arthur Sanders. I’m not knocking you for being good looking enough to break up a happy home but how was that pussy? Had to be worth bringing an FBI here, right?”
Several heads turned to Lonnie, who stood up and smiled.
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“It’s pretty good and I have my tech team monitoring her in-going and out-going messages. They have also begun monitoring her husbands but it also gives me liability in case they start making waves.” Lonnie spread his hands and shrugged.
Clayton clapped his hands. “I’m not mad. You have been careful. I just need to remind you that even though you are. There are smart people who have caught onto your parents. They also have you named as a suspect in a senator murder even though that wasn’t you. It's just that your power signature is too big. Makes me wonder what the hell you eat to get so tough.”
“My girlfriend does all the cooking. She’s in the nutritionist program and crazy about fitness. Just opened a gym and got ready to run all sorts of programs to enable health,” Lonnie said, a touch of pride in his voice.
“Does she know about your mistress?” Clayton crossed his arms and rubbed his beard.
“Of course, she suggested it. I’m sure some of you noticed your increase in hormones. Definitely so for the few of you who are Enhancer types.” Lonnie looks around the room then back at Clayton. “Dick doesn’t go down or stay down. It just remains fully erected as if we over ingested a stimulus.”
“I didn’t notice that but that does explain why a few of my guards have been looking a little weird around F-types.” Clayton shot a glance at a burly dude standing not far behind him. “Anyway, we have a new location for the base. There we will run some tests. Determine optimal training plan and health assessment. From there, you will be able to take assignments that pay or offer what is being called Contribution Points or CP. Cp will allow you to buy certain gear that would normally cost a shit ton. Also allow you to buy plans for emergency use if you go down.”
“We have to pay for a fall-back,” someone in the crowd asked.
“Fuck yeah, you do,” Clayton said, “that money for those plans aren’t coming out of your pocket but people like this home-wrecker. Do you think he has an obligation to save you for no reward?”
“Isn’t he earning from the task we complete?”
“Who the fuck told you that?” Clayton laughed. “I have 2% shares and he has a little more than me. I get exactly 2 million in dividends each quarter because we have other things making us money. The assignments you take don't even register on my earnings from this organization. In fact, they don’t even beat the set of training facilities I have set up which earn me in the thousands per month.”
“So what do you get out of it?”
“The training facilities in the new base are mine. You pay in contribution points for non-work hours. That money goes to me. He owns a few restaurants inside the base and a few others. A lot of the entertainment stuff is what we contribute to. The reason for hiring you, giving you assignments, that help out the big board members with 10 to 15% stake in the company. They gave doggy crumbles to people like me and him. What you do has no effect on us at all and we could survive without the organization.”
I wouldn’t say survive. More likely, we would probably end up under the thumb of the government, working on the books of some officials with a working brain.
Lonnie pulled out his phone and saw two messages. One from Sally, which set do you like? along with three pictures of lingerie. One from Sabrina, I’m at a hiring agency going over some of their free agents. I might not be back for lunch. So don’t plan on me cooking. Get something before coming home.
He replied to Sabrina first. No problem. I’ll get some take out and stop by the Empire. Do you need help searching for people?
“Are you going to come yourself or just utilize your resources?” Sabrina responded.
“Myself?”
“You can bring yourself but not your team of nerds.”
“What’s wrong with them?”
“Take the fun out of it to listen to them analyze everything. Like everything is just data to be broken down and human errors aren’t allowed.”
“So?”
“You can come alone or not at all. Bye, I’m busy.”
You know damn well you aren’t busy if you have time to reply back to me.
“Okay, I’ll be there in twenty. Want anything from a store?”
“Fries and milkshake.”
Lee patted his shoulder. “We are going to get some food before checking out the base. You down?”
Lonnie shook his head. “Sorry, got something going on but if you guys are planning training. Let me know.”
“Not today but tomorrow, early. We are going to do some urban training. The new recruits need it but you don’t. So you can just sit tight and act like the rich bastard you are.” Lee laughed and motioned to his guys to fall out.
“Come on. It’s the only fun I have.” Lonnie chuckled and began walking the opposite directions towards the elevator leading up.
“I won’t be visiting you today and I like the black and blue one with the floral patterns.” Lonnie sent the reply to Sally then went up to the penthouse to grab his duffel bag.